Gotthard
A Bit More On The Tarantino Side

03.06.2014

There’s been a new practice recently to start every Gotthard interview with a brief retrospective journey into the band’s history involving the tragedy that happened to their vocalist and founder member Steve Lee. I chose not to do it because of various reasons. First of all, you might know everything yourself, if you are interested in the music of the Swiss band. And if you don’t, maybe it’s not a good idea to start with such a story. Because the musicians managed to get through this very tough moment (although it might have cost them a bit of popularity) and still continue to do what they do best. I mean, playing hard rock, of course. The best proof for it is Gotthard’s second album with their new vocalist, Nick Maeder. We talked about the recording of this album with the band’s guitarist and main composer, Leo Leoni, though we had to make him stop right in the middle of  driving. Luckily, Leo is just too light-hearted to be upset about it.

Hi, Leo. How are you?

Good, but I was expecting your call 45 minutes ago. (laughs)

Really? They told me this exact time…

(laughs) Yeah, probably I got wrong information. No problem, we can do it now. Just give me a second, I’ve been driving at the moment and I need to… (pause) Yeah, here we go.

Shall we talk about your new album? Did you fell less pressure recording it?

When you do a new record, it’s not a matter of pressure or no pressure, you always try to beat the previous record you have recorded, so there’s always a little bit of pressure. But somehow it was easy because the situation was a little bit better, especially with Nick – if that’s what you’re talking about. In the long run it was not a blind date like we had on “Firebirth” (2012), but if you wanna beat the former record you have to come up with something new and make sure that your new record is gonna be as good as possible and that’s a little bit pressure, yeah. Every record yet has had this type of the pressure, that’s the way it goes.

How was the recording process going?

We started collecting ideas last year in January, and after the long tour that we had we started sharing ideas and working on songs. The whole process was more or less like we had on “Firebirth” except that we had two years’ time to get to know Nick, his voice, what its musical side is and what would have been good to try out on the new record. That’s what we did actually, we allowed ourselves to experiment with new stuff. More or less the procedure was the same that we had with “Firebirth”, except for… The story was not so sad. We didn’t come out from a sad story but we came out from a great success of an album which was “Firebirth”, and a great successful tour which was very important for us. So this was a little bit more relaxed than the previous album.

It looks like the fans have welcomed Nick very well.

Well, you know, there were many singers who wanted to do the audition, and then Nick was introduced by a friend of ours and certainly he is the guy who was the best choice. He wanted badly to be the guy, he convinced us and so… yeah, he’s the guy. As simple as it goes, it was very important to find out all the singers. Especially ‘cause we came out from a very tough moment and, you know, this is not so easy sometimes to go for it and understand what’s going on. But at the end of the day we said, “The singer who is gonna convince us and is gonna move our hearts, for sure is gonna do so for our fans, too”. For us that was the core. And Nick did it. He worked all his way till he got this far. And yeah… All the fans have been grateful with him and he proved that he was the right guy, he worked every night so hard and that’s what he did. He confirmed that it was the right choice.

How does Nick fit into the songwriting process?

As we all work together, Nick, Freddy (Scherer, guitarist) and I, we come up with most of ideas like we did on “Firebirth”. The songwriting process was also a very important part of the audition when we had to come up with a new frontman after the loss of Steve. Would the new guy be able to write songs? This answer was already there two years ago. Nick is very much involved in writing of the lyrics, for sure, but also of the music and vice versa, and everybody is working on the songs.

What made you change the label after 10 years of working with Nuclear Blast?

As simple as it goes, our contract expired. (laughs) We had propositions from different companies and, you know, it felt like it was time to have a little bit of a change so we decided to go for PIAS. We had a good time with Nuclear Blast but sometimes you have to change something to make things moving.

As far as I know, hard rock is not their priority.

Well, if I look at Nuclear Blast, hard rock isn’t their priority either. (laughs) It’s a challenge for us, it’s a new situation and we’re gonna find out what’s going on.

Your last three albums with Steve had almost heavy metal sound and now you’re turning back to hard rock, aren’t you?

Well, Gotthard has always been a bit of a classic rock band, and as after 20 years we’re still on the road and doing records, I believe Gotthard became kind of classic sound. I don’t think we went back to hard rock or… I think, it’s Gotthard 2014 with the solid, rock-ish, energetic sound. Like on the former records with Steve, I always try to come up with something classic for the period of time. So what “Bang!” is all about is classic 2014 Gotthard sound.

I heard you are working with Charlie Bauerfeind as a co-producer. I know him for his work with Helloween and to be honest I don’t really like the sound of their latest albums. What is the situation with your album? Will your sound change somehow?

Charlie is a great producer, of course he is well-known for some other metal material like Helloween or Saxon. I think the communication between Charlie and myself turned out to be very good. There was a discussion if we want to move something on this record and we had a list of the guys which we wanted to work with. One of them was Paul Lani with whom we worked together on “Firebirth”, and Charlie was another guy who was on the list because we worked together before and he mixed our live record. We did a trial with him, another friend had no time in the period when we wanted to record the album so we ended up working with Charlie on the production side which turned out to be a great thing. He brought this very rhythmical, a little more modern sound into it. I was more into this rock’n’roll vibe, the melodies and this kind of things. At the end of the day we engaged that friend in mixing the record and this combination turned out to be very successful, we are very happy about our collaboration. It’s great, I love it. I would say I was very happy to share my work with Charlie Bauerfeind.

Well, I’ve already seen the video for “Feel What I Feel” and the sound was great…

Thank you.

Could you tell us more about the shooting of the video?

It was funny. We wanted to do it a little bit different than a typical rock’n’roll video. The video company came up with this story and we liked it, we thought, “Why not? Let’s do it”. In fact we got this kind of alien ambience in this video clip, and you have this beautiful lady, somehow she’s an alien, too. Actually the lyrics of the song are about a dream of this beautiful girl and then suddenly you wake up and the girl is not there and you ask somebody else, “Hey, do you dream about this kind of a situation?” It’s kind of that, you have this dream girl and then suddenly she’s an alien. Like, do you feel like I feel? (sings and laughs)

How did you decide who’s gonna kiss this lady? Did you have a kind of lottery?

(laughs) No. Nick is single. He was single at the time so we let them use the singer, it’s cool. He’s a good actor, and that was it, you know. Lucky Nick!

You invited this American vocalist, Melody Tibbits, to sing on the album. How did you get to know her?

It’s an interesting story because she is an unknown artist somehow, she is teaching in Lugano and was presented by a friend of mine, Danny. I wanted to have some female vocals, you have to change music, the color of the record to keep the three dimensional thing, so… Actually we were working together in the studio for the song “Thank You”, which is the last song of the record. If you hear these woman vocals which sound like an angel… And then I asked her to do some other backing vocals for other tracks. Actually she was singing some over the bars in “Maybe”; we liked it and we caught the moment and I asked her to sing some more just to see how it would sound. Certainly we liked the idea and we ended up doing a spontaneous duet with an unknown person. (laughs) It sounds great, everybody loves it, the band loves it, Charlie loves it and everyone was like, “Let’s do it”. Actually we have these fantastic vocals and a fantastic performance of this fantastic singer which Melody Tibbits is. We hope that maybe we can bring her some luck. It’s cool, I like it.

What about the name of the album? It somehow reminds me about the Big Bang.

No, it’s not the Big Bang idea. It’s just like a bang. (laughs) Actually it comes from the title track “Bang!” And then there is another song which is called “Jump The Gun” and there is a lady, Katie, which is also “bang-bang-bang”-ing… So we thought, why don’t we call it “Bang!?” “Bang-bang-banging around the world” is like a definition of rock’n’roll. We were banging the stages around the world for 20 years. So we thought why don’t we come up with that as the title of the record? “Bang!” - it’s Gotthard-2014. And Katie is on the cover. (laughs)

You know, the cover reminds me of the 1930s, the gangsters, “The Godfather” and everything like that. Was that the idea?

The idea was to do it a little bit like a movie poster. But I think we are a little bit more on the cartoon side. Maybe a little bit more on Tarantino side and not maybe “The Godfather”. It’s a pretty nice cover, I like it. It doesn’t look like the other ones.

When you were releasing the previous album you said it was like your second first album. So “Bang!” should be your second second album…

Yes, and I think in the music career the most difficult record is the second one. But for us it’s the second second album so we learned from the first second one. (both laughing)

So was it more or less difficult than the first second album?

Like I said in the beginning of the interview, it’s always a little bit difficult to come up with a new record but there are so many things behind us, there is so much experience that you get during your life and career. So somehow you try to put this experience together, to work with it. And then after all these years the only thing you can do is just to try to do the best possible and while you’re convinced that what you do is correct then here we go. The record is done. (laughs) So back to your question, somehow it’s always difficult but, you know, we have more experience…

Do you personally feel more responsibility for Gotthard and its vibe?

You know, like I said, we work all together and when we did the audition we wanted to have someone who would be what we thought for us the right thing. I think what Gotthard sound is – is something we’re doing. And I think… Yeah, it works. (laughs) Then of course I’m a part of the sound, but I’m there since day one, so that for sure is a part of the sound - Leo Leoni, guitar, composing, yeah. It’s a part of the responsibility, of course. I’m producing it is ‘cause I like it and I know how Gotthard is supposed to sound, what Gotthard is all about. I started it back then, when I was a kid. (laughs) I don’t know if you were already born in 1991.

Yeah, I was 7 years old at that time.

Oh, I see. (both laughing)

Okay, tell me about that event in the opera in Zurich.

That was a charity concert which we did in the middle of the new album recording. We got a request to play for the Lighthouse. The Lighthouse is a house in Zurich which gives a place to live or to finish their lives to the people who are sick, who have some kind of a terminal sickness, when they don’t have any other place to go and somehow wait for the moment of… They needed some money to keep this house alive so they asked us to do something. We thought it was a good idea to work for this project so we presented an hour-long acoustic set with violins and other fantastic things. We helped the Lighthouse with, I think, something like 2,500 Swiss francs, which helped this house to keep on going for at least 1.5 years. It was a good call. We love to do this kind of things, to help people who have more problems than we do, actually.

Last year you did a great tour with Unisonic. How was it? I mean, you are playing different styles of music…

Yeah, somehow yes and somehow… You know, at the end of the day, the music that we play, whether it’s rock’n’roll or metal, is not so far off. I would say there is a little bit of heavy metal in rock’n’roll and a little bit of rock’n’roll in heavy metal, if you understand what I’m saying. It’s cool to try to convince fans of other bands to enjoy our music and I think it’s the same for Unisonic. We had a great tour with them, we’ve known the guys for a while, Mandy (Meyer, guitarist – ed.) was playing with us for few years. Our audience liked them a lot and I hope that Unisonic audience liked what we did, too.

Yeah, I have some friends who saw you for the first time during that tour and they liked you.

Of course they had to like us. We are such nice guys, aren’t we? (both laughing)

Absolutely. I have some more questions for you from your Russian fans if you don’t mind.

Please.

What’s your favorite sport? Is it true that you love ice hockey?

Yeah. I used to play hockey and I’m trying to get back into shape and play again. I’m a goalkeeper. Actually, once I had a chance to play with some Russian dudes, too. I think Ovechkin was there. It was like a special game in Switzerland, like a friendly game for my friend who stopped to play hockey, Goldenstain. It was during the NHL lockout, and Ovechkin was there.

Was it difficult to play against him?

Well, it was a friendly game. (laughs) I don’t think he played 100%, but yes, it was pretty cool actually. Also I’m a good friend of an ex-trainer from St. Petersburg, Ivano Zanatta. And then there’s this goalie who played I think in Moscow (pause) oh, I forgot it now… Yaks, Pauli Jaks, he played in Russia, too. (He played in Omsk, actually, - ed.) I have a few friends who played in Russia. Though I’m not such a good player, I’m just playing for fun.

You are a good musician instead, luckily for us.

Thank you.

Do you follow any of the major hockey leagues? NHL or KHL maybe?

Yeah, and actually Swiss hockey league is also very good. Yeah, I’m following some stuff.

Did you watch the Olympics?

Yes, I watched a little bit the hockey scene and the Swiss sportsmen. You know, the skiing and others, but I was a little bit busy doing some promotional things and video and whatever. Russia came up with a lot of medals, which is cool.

That’s right, but we lost the hockey thing…

Well, Switzerland too. (both laughing)

Well, another question from the fans. When Steve died and Gotthard was scarcely around, did you ever consider joining any other band?

You know, when this happened, it was a very difficult moment. Back then, first of all, what happened happened and we could not let down what Gotthard was all about. If we had found a guy who’d give us the good feeling and who, we thought, would be the right guy, we would have tried to go on with Gotthard. Also because I think Steve would not have stopped in this situation. I think it was very important to go on for the band and for the fans and for the 20 years of work that we did in the past. So if you ask me if I was considering to join another band or to do something else, for me it was like step 3. Step 1 was like what we were gonna do with this band. Then I decided to go on with my friends because Steve and I, we started this whole story and if I’d gone somewhere else that would have been over, which was not the idea, actually.

Did you ever have any day jobs?

(laughs) Well, I had a day job back then. And actually what I’m doing it is a day job. (laughs) I’m working every day, making music, so it is a day job. Rock’n’roll is a night job. Rock’n’roll is a dream, everybody dreams to do rock’n’roll, it’s the best job you can get. But when I was a kid, when I was young I studied electricity and I was working to play music, play soccer and I did some stuff. But then I decided that music was the all-call and went for it.

Do you miss something from those early days?

(pause) Yeah, maybe. What I miss is the youth. You know, when you’re in your teens you are a little bit more on the wild side, you are a little bit more crazy in trying out things. But then after all these years you’re getting wise and that’s the best thing. Maybe I miss this but not that much.

What’s your secret for staying together as a band for so long? No lineup changes, nothing…

It’s like… It was a common dream, the idea was to do an everlasting band, not just a project. The dream was to have a band like Deep Purple, like Aerosmith, all those big bands that were around for many years. This was the dream and I think the trick is the respect and understanding that everybody is there to reach the same goal. Also I think a very big difference is that our success didn’t come that early, our success came when we were over 25 already. When you know how hard it is to work for success you think twice before doing a stupid thing and ruining everything. That’s the trick, actually. It’s not that much of a secret. It’s just respect for what you’re doing and for the people who are around you. That’s all.

Thank you for the interview; it was my pleasure to talk to you. Do you want to add something for the fans?

I would love to say thank you for the great support during all those years and thank you for welcoming Nick and the new lineup of the band. And here we are, Gotthard-2014, and “Bang!” Check it out, I think it is a great album, if not the greatest record we’ve ever done, then one of the best for sure! It’s fantastic. There are a lot of emotions and a lot of everything. Hope you’ll like it the way I do. Looking forward to see you somehow in Russia, we hope to come there and play some more shows. Russian fans are great and they’re coming to my restaurant (Leo and his sister own a restaurant in a small village called Capriasca close to Lugano in Switzerland – ed.) from Russia and it’s great! You can always say that Leo is looking forward to see you if you happen to be at the restaurant. (laughs)

Gotthard on the Internet: http://www.gotthard.com

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Ekaterina Akopova
March 11, 2014
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